| ~Beyond the Border~ > Sara's Audio-Visual Import-Overflow Retail |
| N-Forza's Comiket Adventure! |
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| N-Forza:
As some of you may or may not know, I participated in the recent Comiket 77 at Tokyo Big Sight a few days ago. I've been to every one since I've been to Japan, but this is the first time I actually participated as a seller, on the second day. However, this will be a general account of the entire event The first day of Comiket wasn't too bad. Mostly centered around girl-oriented comics, there was also a fair amount of general video game stuff. The music game section in particular had my interest, so I got there around 9:15 and lined up behind the East Hall entrance. I've only seen the East Hall entrance available during the Winter Comikets, which is weird because it's really useful so I don't know why they don't have them during the Summer ones too, but whatever. Talka, who I was with, said that he occasionally noticed people taking pictures of me as we walked around. What's so strange about a 6'5" white guy going to something like this? I also decided to go to the Corporate Area today since I had a few things to pick up for people there. I had never been there before, so what surprised me the most was just how packed it was on the inside. I literally had to push my way through the crowd to get anywhere. And then I found out that most of the lines for the booths were actually outside. They moved them inside in sections, which is a pretty clever idea, but I wish it were easier to find where the end of the line really was. So that was Day 1. Not too bad, except for the last part, but the real battle was the next day. Talka and I got up at 5:30 to catch the train into Tokyo. Unfortunately, due to all the stuff we had to carry with us, we missed the train by about 30 seconds. We still managed to get into the area pretty early compared to the rest of the circles, around 8 or so. We get to our assigned area, greet our neighbors for the next 6 hours, and this is the first thing I see on our booth: A ton of flyers advertising printing services, other events, stores, books, pretty much anything anime/game related really. Also, the length of the folding chairs under the pile is about the size of the booth. Small but sufficient. However, the real prize was sitting just under the table... Four white boxes containing... 500 copies of our soon-to-be-distributed books! Since I couldn't actually buy stuff yet, I decided to go say hi to some of my favorite circles and give them our book. Even though this is a fairly informal event, since this is Japan, I had some name cards to give to them as well, and I got quite a few name cards in return as well. Of the circles I greeted, mostly the music circles seemed the most pleased that I was a fan of their work. The reactions from the comic circles seemed a little more subdued. Anyway, when I got back, Talka and another person who was helping us out went off to change into their costumes. This was around 9:15, so there was still time, or so I thought. I set up the booth a little more, and fortunately found where he had put the change, which is usually very important in selling things. However, at around 9:50 I was getting a little worried since neither of them had returned. Fortunately, I had found just about everything I needed to, so when the event started at 10:00, I was more or less ready, supposedly. Sold the first book within the minute. Then the next minute, two. Then the next minute, 4. After about 5 minutes, I already had a line going. Things were going pretty well until about 10:20 when I was informed by some staff that there was a form that we forgot to turn in so we could actually sell stuff. Since the event was already in full swing, I had to muscle my way to the other end of the hall to turn in the form. Took all of 10 minutes, but still annoying. I returned and continued to fumble along with the sales until Talka finally returned at around 11. That meant I got to start my shopping. Most of it was over in the other side of the hall, and I spent about 2 hours buying stuff for others. I got back at a little before 12:30 and noticed that they had blocked off the entire right end of the hall, where my booth was. I thought there was some incident that occurred, but it was just crowd control. I had to go out and in through the sides of the hall. By the time I got back, we still hadn't sold out, but we had the longest line on our little island by far. I switched with Talka for a while and witnessed the rest of our books disappear before 1:30. At around 2, Talka and the other guy went to go do their greetings with some books they had stashed away, so until around 3:30 was by myself. We still had a sample book for people to thumb through, as well as plastic file folders of varying designs. I actually enjoyed this part the most. Since the book was the main draw, there was time to talk to the people who stopped by, and for some reason, a few people even wanted to shake my hand. I even had a request to sign my book. There were a lot of compliments about the idea, and I gave plenty of reminders that we would re-print more for later events as well as for sale in stores. Around 3:30, Talka and the other guy came back to drop off their stuff and go change out of their costumes. They still weren't back by the time it ended at 4, so I packed up the best I could, not to mention guarding the box where we stored our money. After they came back, we headed out to the nearby hotel since there was a really nice Chinese restaurant at the top with a great view of the Tokyo skyline. We didn't end up getting back until 11 PM, but all things considered, it was a good day. The final day I didn't end up going until around 11 AM. I was able to just walk into the main entrance. They say the third day is the busiest day, but it never seems that way to me. There were some awfully long lines outside though. Afterwards I stopped by Akihabara with Talka and some friends to pick up some stuff I missed the day before and have shabu-shabu. So yeah, except for the whole getting in early on the second day, it wasn't terribly different. If anyone has any other questions, ask away. Also, here's what I picked up. A (*) means that it was something I traded my book for. Top two and right-most two are DDR books. On the second row, there's the new bkub book, two books by the circle Funny Rocket(*), and Touhou Peanuts by Chamupei(*). Third row is a couple of Pop'n Music books and then a couple of EBA/Ouendan books. The bottom row is a bag with the EBA characters as cats (which I got as a gift since I buy that circle's books at every event, a watch with SDM characters(*), and a Cirno accessory(*). Not pictured is an Ichirin and Unzan coaster. And the CDs: From the left going down: Essence by Maki (Bemani artist) Melancholic Road by TLi-Synth (Touhou jazz arrange) Omoi by Sound Holic (Various genres) Touhou Violin Rock I & II by TAMusic The Fantastic Fastest Legend by garbanzo (Eurobeat) Re:Starlights & An Umbrella by Hatsunetsu Mikos(*) (Jazz, house, latin) Touhou Pianism I by Sound Holic White Mutation from TatshMusicCircle (Various) 12.3 OST Three Stars by Tokyo Active NEETs (Piano/Trumpet/Violin trio) Far East of East II by TatshMusicCircle (Various genres) Crossing by SJV-SC (Fusion), 東方縦笛紅魔郷 by Mapoze(*) (Acoustic & Wind) Museum of Marasy 2 by Marasy(*) (Piano solo) Three CDs from EastNewSound, including their new release, Sacred Factor(*) (Vocal trance) Now I just have to rip them all. :V |
| Gpop:
I can sense so much :parsee: coming into this thread. |
| Nietz:
Congratulations on your book's success! I for one was sure it was going to be a big hit. And that Touhou Peanuts book seems sweet. |
| Danielu Yoshikoto:
aw... i wish i will be able to ATLEAST once to the Comiket once in my life... btw... cool stuff you got. (through i would have gotten something else for myself) |
| Drake:
I am making a face that cannot be expressed in text without much labor. |
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